If you are beginning work in the Spring Term, the “first day of work” on your Record of Employment (ROE) will be listed as May 6, 2019. If you are currently collecting EI, you should also be reporting this start date on your bi-weekly reports and you’ll stop receiving EI payments effective May 5, 2019.

If you are beginning work in the Summer Term, the “first day of work” on your Record of Employment will be listed as June 24, 2019. If you are collecting EI, you should also be reporting this start date on your bi-weekly reports and you’ll stop receiving EI payments effective June 23, 2019.

IF you were collecting EI during the first week of January 2019 AND you had a Sessional appointment for the Winter Term 2019, can you please let us know? Your Union and McMaster University want to ensure that the first day of work date was properly recorded on your Winter Term 2019 Record of Employment.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

HAMILTON, ON — The union representing teaching assistants and postdoctoral fellows at McMaster University has provided its formal notice to bargain to the McMaster administration.

The union — the Canadian Union of Public Employees, Local 3906 (CUPE 3906), which represents approximately 3,500 members — is ready to bring forward proposals that will increase equity, fairness, and stability for its members and for the students that they support.

Workers from both bargaining units aim to increase their funding, improve working conditions, and reduce the amount of financial instability that they experience during their time at McMaster. In short, they are looking to build a #BetterMac.

For Unit 1 (teaching assistants), a #BetterMac means fighting to expand the support for mental and physical health and wellness, increase the paid training they receive before they enter the classroom, and achieve better representation for indigenous members.

“We are bargaining for the common good,” said James Watson, member of the Unit 1 Bargaining Team. “This isn’t only about teaching assistant or research assistant work in a narrow sense. It’s about what’s best for the entire McMaster community and what’s best for our students.”

For Unit 3 (postdoctoral fellows), a #BetterMac means fighting to expand the support available for their families and for their academic and career development. It also means the creation of a pension plan, which postdocs have identified a major priority.

“Currently, we don’t have access to a pension plan,” says Zobia Jawed, CUPE 3906 Benefits Officer and member of the Unit 3 bargaining team. “But I want to ensure I have some amount of financial support available for me when I retire.”

“There is a very large difference in retirement savings between a worker who benefits from pension contributions immediately post-PhD, and a worker who has to wait until after their postdoc positions are over,” says Toby Brown, a member of the Unit 3 bargaining team. “It’s important that we find a way to address this earnings gap.”

Now that the notice to bargain has been issued, CUPE 3906’s elected bargaining teams for Units 1 and 3 will prepare their proposals and get ready to meet McMaster’s bargaining teams at the negotiating table. The union and the employer have dates scheduled in early May to begin negotiations for the new Unit 3 collective agreement, and dates set in early June for the new Unit 1 collective agreement.

“In Doug Ford’s Ontario, our education system is under attack at every level,” said Angie Perez, CUPE 3906 President. “That’s all the more reason why McMaster cannot afford to move backwards when it comes to the learning conditions of our students and the working conditions of our teachers and researchers.”

“In this round of bargaining, we need to come together to fight the growth of precarious work on our campus. Our members contribute so much to the McMaster community, and they deserve support to build a family and plan for the future.”

Unit 1 is CUPE 3906’s largest unit with over 2,900 members, and includes graduate and undergraduate teaching assistants, research assistants (in lieu of a TAship), demonstrators, markers, tutors and super tutors. Unit 3 is CUPE 3906’s smallest unit with just over 170 members, and consists of postdoctoral fellows working at McMaster University. Both the Unit 1 and Unit 3 collective agreements expire on August 31.

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For more information:

Angie Perez, CUPE 3906 President, president@cupe3906.org

Brad Walchuk, Chief Negotiator – Unit 1, bwalchuk@cupe3906.org

Mary Ellen Campbell, Chief Negotiator – Unit 3, mecampbell@cupe3906.org

In the past few years, CUPE members have consistently identified sexual violence and harassment as one of the most important issues facing our members in the post-secondary sector.

In 2017, CUPE members passed a resolution at convention calling for a toolkit on the topic of sexual violence at work. In late 2018, CUPE released the Stop Workplace Sexual Violence guide for CUPE locals.

Five provinces have now adopted legislation requiring post-secondary institutions to have an institutional policy on sexual violence and harassment. Universities and colleges in other provinces are also choosing to adopt and implement such policies. In many cases, 2019 is the year these policies have officially come into effect.

The impact of these policies so far appears to be mixed. Some institutional policies are better than others. And some schools are better at implementing them than others. At many universities and colleges, both administrators and local unions are trying to feel their way through a process that both sides find unfamiliar. New questions are cropping up constantly.

In order to better understand what is happening across the country and whether there are additional tools and resources that CUPE National can offer the post-secondary sector that will help CUPE members to navigate the process of dealing with incidents of sexual violence and harassment, we are asking CUPE post-secondary members to fill out this short, informal survey.

The results of this survey will be used to inform the development of CUPE National’s research and education agenda on this issue. All information will be kept confidential and responses will not be published, but please do not provide any confidential details which could identify survivors who have chosen not to go public with their story.

Survey link: https://survey-sondage.cupe.ca/index.php/711363

Survey deadline: April 30, 2019

In November 2017, CUPE 3906 filed a grievance against McMaster University to address an alleged inequitable wage gap between men and women working as postdoctoral fellows. CUPE 3906 claimed that the difference in wages violated both the collective agreement and the Equal Pay provisions of the Employment Standards Act.

The University and the Local, after extensive review and discussion, came to an agreement that the inequitable wage gap applied only to postdocs working in the Faculty of Science.

The resolution represents a meaningful gain for those members, and also helps to advance equal pay in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields. The resolution not only addresses the inequitable wage gap, but also mandates proactive practices going forward.

We’ve reviewed the survey results, and have identified your four major priority areas for a #BetterMac. Our next step is to vote and give our bargaining team the mandate they need to move forward in negotiations. Please join us for a very important membership meeting on April 11 at noon in BSB 147 to ratify your major priority areas.

As always, the meeting is in an accessible location, pizza lunch is provided (halal options, gluten free/vegan options), and childcare costs involved with facilitating your attendance will be reimbursed.

We’ve heard many questions from members about where to access their T4s (as well as T2202s for those who are also students). These are created by the Employer and uploaded to MOSAIC. Information about how to find them in MOSAIC is available by clicking on the link HERE.